From drug dealing, to near-suicide, to God

Holding a gun to his head, Edwin Cartagena was ready to pull the trigger.

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By DEBRA RYAN

southcoasttoday.com

By DEBRA RYAN

Posted Aug. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 3, 2014 at 12:24 PM

By DEBRA RYAN

Posted Aug. 2, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 3, 2014 at 12:24 PM

Upcoming events

"God Belongs in My City" walk and concert: Aug. 16, gathering at noon at City Hall, 133 William St., New Bedford. The walk will begin at 1 p.m. and end at 2, followed by a free Christian concert at...

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Upcoming events

"God Belongs in My City" walk and concert: Aug. 16, gathering at noon at City Hall, 133 William St., New Bedford. The walk will begin at 1 p.m. and end at 2, followed by a free Christian concert at Buttonwood Park. Guest musicians will include Ashmont Hill, Tyrone & Leroy, M.A.K. and Beyond Muzik. For more information, call (617) 913-2192 or email gbimcnewbedford@gmail.com.

"A Day in My Shoes" second annual suicide awareness walk: Sept. 27, meeting at 8 a.m. at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School, 1121 Ashley Blvd. Walk begins at 9 and ends at Fort Taber in the South End of New Bedford. Meetings are available for survivors, family members and friends who are left behind to deal with the loss of a loved one. The organization strives to share awareness, inform and train. For more information on the Greater New Bedford Suicide Prevention Coalition, visit their Facebook page, www.gnbcares.org, or email edwin@gnbcares.org.

Holding a gun to his head, Edwin Cartagena was ready to pull the trigger.

"I felt I had enough with everything," he said. "I believed I was good at nothing and I wanted it all to end.

"I cried out to God — I prayed," Cartagena said. "I asked 'Where are you? Are you real? If so, reveal yourself to me!'"

"That was when I got what I call my 'got it' moment," he said.

"Then God played my life back to me, like a movie. He showed me the numerous times he had been there and the times that he had sent other people into my life to help me."

Now, the member of Potter's House Church has organized a walk in New Bedford as part of a national initiative, "God Belongs in My City."

Cartagena came to New Bedford at age 9, with no father figure in his life. "I did not have a lot of hope," he said.

At 16, he started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. "It was easy to get, I had a lot of older friends," he recalls.

"I was getting decent grades in school but I wanted to be the funny guy," he said. "In my senior year, I got kicked out of school, which resulted in my being kicked out of the house.

"I was already at the point where I was hiding stuff in the house, like in my mom's plants," he said. "After that, I just stayed at different friend's houses.

"As a way of making money I sold drugs because I believed that there was nothing else I was good at," Cartagena said.

"It was easy. I had a system. I was my own boss," he added. "I went from selling cocaine to crack and ultimately to heroin."

In 2005, Cartagena came very close to going to jail. "We had just picked up more than 100 grams of heroin and got pulled over in a traffic stop in Brockton. It was my first case for drugs and I could have gone to prison 10 years or more.

"With a $5,000 retainer, I got a lawyer who had the charges minimized and I didn't get any jail time."

Cartagena says that was the beginning of a turnaround in his life. He admits the transformation process took a while.

"My wife Luz started going to church," he said. "I started working but it was difficult to adjust to working for and with other people.

"About seven or eight years ago, I came to a point that I wanted to end it. I was going to take my own life, but I cried out to God and He answered me.

"I started going to church with my wife. We went as a family," the New Bedford resident said. "I wanted to become involved in the community and help others going through what I had experienced.

"I found out that a group was being formed called the Greater New Bedford Suicide Prevention Coalition. I was working, so I couldn't go to the meetings. I sent my wife and she would take notes."

The coalition was being organized by the Rev. David Lima of New Seasons Worship Center in East Freetown, The Standard-Times 2013 New Bedford Man of the Year.

"He was sending his wife to these meetings," Lima said. "Then I got some emails that were a couple of pages long telling me what he had been through.

"Edwin is now an integral part of our organization," Lima said. "We organized a suicide awareness walk last year called 'A Day in My Shoes.' More than 400 people walked nine miles across the city. Edwin did all of the artwork for the project and a great deal of the work."

Lima continued, "What brought everyone together was the fact that there had been five kids, aged 15 and under, who had died by suicide in the previous 22 months."

Cartagena now participates in ride-alongs with the New Bedford Police Department as a youth chaplain, working with those who are at risk. Within the last month he has conducted two interventions, said Lima.

"This is a young man who has 'been there and done that,'" Lima said about Cartagena's work with the youth. "He is showing them that loving Christ is not a weakness, but a strength."

By going to evening school at New Bedford High School, Cartagena received his diploma. Now 28, he is the father of three children. He works for the City of New Bedford Department of Infrastructure as a seasonal laborer.

About organizing the walk, Cartagena said, "I began thinking and feeling in my heart, that there has been a string of violence. That we have to push to another level, something has to be done. We are not doing enough."

Ten churches and organizations are supporting the event and are directly involved in it, Cartagena said. "We want to bring a message of unity, peace and love. We will be praying and reaching out to hurting and lost people.

"'God Belongs in My City' is our declaration of faith. As Christ came and changed the world, we as Christians are to impact our city now. We are being called to fearlessly rise up as one and not collapse under the waves of the world. We are commissioned to carry forth the Gospel of salvation.

"If you have breath, you have life. If you have life, you have purpose. Don't give up," Cartagena said.